NEWLY RELEASED

By EDWARD WYATT

Published: November 10, 2004

Correction Appended

For the 48 percent of the electorate most in need of a laugh these days, the old jokes about George W. Bush are just not cutting it. What is needed, perhaps, is some old-fashioned comedy. While ''America (The Book),'' the faux civics textbook by Jon Stewart and other cast members of ''The Daily Show,'' has remained atop the best-seller lists for several weeks, and George Carlin's ''When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?'' has also fared well recently, government and religion are topics that might ring too close to the election results. Here are some recent humor titles a little further removed from politics.

The Powder Room Prowler is still on the loose, and not much else has changed in Dacron, Ohio, as the Feb. 12, 1978, issue of The Dacron Republican-Democrat attests. This classic Sunday paper parody, predecessor of The Onion, Weekend Update and all manner of fake news, comes complete with wedding announcements, crime reports, color comics and magazine inserts -- everything in the original, but the ink doesn't rub off on your hands. This reissue is a sequel to Rugged Land's revival of National Lampoon's ''1964 High School Yearbook.''

''In the early 70's, the nation was afflicted with incurable pattern viruses -- small microbes that reproduced and multiplied from a single swatch left on a sofa, and soon covered the entire room.'' They are all captured here, along with mirrored dining rooms, shag-carpeted family rooms and other settings which, if you look at them long enough, will cause you to start making up ''Love, American Style'' plots. This is ''a labor of hate'' from the author of ''The Gallery of Regrettable Food.''

The Bart Book and The Homer Book
By Matt Groening
Perennial Currents/HarperCollins, $9.95.

Though they might seem tame to fans of ''South Park,'' these inaugural volumes of The Simpsons Library of Wisdom feature enough background on ''The Simpsons'' to evoke wistful memories of that classic animated show. These volumes include Playboy-style profiles of all the characters (Homer's favorite song: ''It's Raining Men,'' by the Weather Girls), annotated layouts of favorite haunts, and helpful lists (''Things that sound like food but aren't!'').

''See Jane schlep. Schlep, Jane. Schlep.'' Dick and Jane are living in a grown-up world, and boy do they have tsuris: adultery, regifting, gay love affairs. In short, all the problems that seemed nonexistent in their idyllic childhood have come home to roost. With a helpful glossary and fervent disclaimer of any connection to the classic Dick and Jane readers. EDWARD WYATT

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Correction: November 13, 2004, Saturday
A listing of recently published humor books in The Arts on Wednesday misstated the relationship between ''National Lampoon Sunday Newspaper Parody,'' a reissue of a 1978 publication, and the Weekend Update news parody on the television show ''Saturday Night Live.'' Weekend Update was a predecessor of the newspaper parody, not the reverse.